Chapter Eleven

Eridanus Réalta

Eridanus gasped. The dragons were unbelievably quick, all pounces and snarls. One shoved a sack over Adan’s head, flung him towards his accomplices, and made a beeline for her. She inhaled sharply and dove, narrowly avoiding his grasping talons. She saw Bylur turn, hesitate, and flee, his tail a pale blur. Four muddy-shaded dragons broke off and chased him. A scream, a loud laugh, and Eridanus glimpsed a broken white body tumbling out of the sky, his blood scrawling the pristine air. A cry died in her throat as the seven goons all converged on her, savage teeth bared. Fire erupted from her mouth, searing several dragon’s scales. Her talons felt useless as she slashed and scratched madly, and her head pounded with the pained dragon cries.

Suddenly, an EarthWing attacked her. His talons raked her shoulder, tearing flesh. She screamed in pain and lashed out, flames scorching his entire head. He dropped and fell to earth, but the damage was done. Another dragon slashed the top of her wing, a tough but sensitive area. She yelped, drew her wing in instinctively, and lost her balance in the air. An enormous drake bonked her on the back of the head and her world went black. As she plummeted from the sky, her last thought was a severe hope that the drake had impaled his talon on her horns.

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She woke in darkness, a burlap sack rubbing her scales irritatingly. Warm FlameWing scales brushed hers and she knew Adan was here with her. Rage filled her cloudy mind and she exhaled a long tongue of flame, lighting up the darkness and incinerating the sack. A rough, grungy voice filled her head, hissing, “Disappointing. Just knock her out again.”

A blazing pain erupted in her skull and she crumpled, her view darkening once more.

Three shadowy dragons marched forward and seized the limp body, flinging it and her motionless companion over their bulky shoulders. The trio marched away in silence, and the world was quiet once more, betraying no hint of the disgusting events taking place on its surface.

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“Hey, wake up,” said a warm, low voice. There was a slight pause and a loud thump. Eridanus’ eyelids wobbled, ready to open, but she slammed them closed again. “Wh-” she asked but was quite rudely interrupted by a warm-scaled talon wrapping forcefully around her snout in an instant, preventing her from saying anything.

“Lay down,” the voice instructed, now quieter. “Pretend to still be sleeping. They’re coming!” 

Eridanus, still groggy from her long rest, followed the unknown dragon’s instructions. Slowly, she tried to figure out who the voice belonged to but heard about three different ones instead. 

“I can’t believe we gotta watch three dragonets,” a gravelly voice said. Whoever it was, he spoke with the distinct accent of the farmer’s districts. A scraping noise accompanied his words as if he were dragging his talons across a stone slab.

“At least one of ‘em is asleep. And we’re getting good food!” a second voice retorted. Eridanus heard a loud crunching sound – the other dragon must have been trying to make a point. “And the pay we’re getting is top-notch!” he continued. The first dragon made a noise of agreement.

“You idiots!” another voice said. “Do you not know who we are watching? These stupid dragonets are General Sintev's son, daughter, and the Eridanus Réalta! If we mess up we won't just be losing our jobs… We’ll be losing our heads!” the third dragon snarled, the voice considerably deeper. Eridanus’ headache, maybe from the two heavy blows she’d received before her capture or perhaps the loud, vicious argument that had suddenly sprung into place before her. 

“I ain’t gettin’ paid ter get executed!” one dragon suddenly snapped, pounding a clenched talon on the table before him. “I’m bein’ paid ter kill stuff fer his Highness and ter clonk ‘is enemies over th’ head! I’m sick ‘a watchin’ dragonets!”

The second dragon spoke up. “Sir, I’m getting fed up with this clutter too. They aren’t of any use to us, so why not just snap their necks and move on?”

Both Eridanus and her fellow captive tensed. Eridanus had been tighter than a violin’s string ever since the first dragon mentioned ‘His Highness’. She shivered. Who was ‘His Highness’? Most of the time rulers of Mount Naga and beyond were female– if there was a monarchy at all.

“Well, King Shadowwalker wants to keep them so keep them, so keep them we shall. Also, what did you do to that stupid FlameWing dragonet, the one who kept shrieking about this one?”

 “We let him go. Shadowwalker’s orders. He only wanted the black one,” rasped the first dragon

Eridanus flopped over onto her side and the guards bristled, but she didn’t care. Shadowwalker! The most definitely evil supervillain of legend? SHADOWWALKER RULED HERE?

“Was that Adan?” Eridanus’ mystery companion asked, sounding worried.  Eridanus shot up, not recognizing that her fellow captive knew Adan’s name.

“YOU’RE GENERAL SINTEV’S DAUGHTER!?” Eridanus roared, forgetting all notions of silence.

“N-no,” her companion said, obviously lying. 

“YOU CROSS-TALONED RABBIT!” Eridanus bellowed, her wings stretched tightly against their rough bonds. 

“SHUDDUP!” snarled Dragon Three. “We may not be able to hurt you brats directly but we’ve got half a dozen ways we can silence you.” 

Eridanus frowned. Dragon Three, it seemed, was the only one here who seemed to care about his job… and also seemed to be in charge. Dragon Two appeared to be more interested in the food and pay, and Dragon One wanted to kill them; no questions asked.

“Aye!” somebody said. The sound was far off and distant, so it was pretty clear the dragon was either outside of the small compartment Eridanus was probably in, or she was in a large room and Eridanus was on the opposite side of the room. “Boss wants to see ‘em! Get ‘em out of there and to the room.” 

“That means we can knock ‘em out?” Dragon One asked. 

“No. The dragonets are all important. Besides, you already knocked out the boy. His father won’t be happy, and the FlameWing girl is the general’s daughter.  And then the EclipseWing is the princess and the king’s goddaughter,” snapped Three. One made an irritated noise.

“Fine,” he spat. “But ‘now are we gonna get ‘em to not see the way?”

“I say we get some blindfolds and just drag them to King Shadowwalker’s throne room,” spat Two. Much to Eridanus’s disgust, she felt a hot, sweaty talon snatch up her foreleg and yank her backward. Her chin banged into something hard and jagged – maybe a stone table or stool. Her jawbone ached, but she didn’t dare rub it. From what she’d heard of these guards in her short time here, she was pretty sure they’d kill her the moment she moved. 

“Stay down, Berry!” the dragon behind her hissed. It took a moment for Eridanus to process the words… but then it hit her. There was only ever one dragon who would ever call her Berry. 

Lasair. 

Her tarnaitė was Sintev’s daughter.